In York, Dems rally before Romney gets his star turn.

From health care to taxes, from
national security to domestic policy, Pennsylvania voters will face clear
choices at the polls this fall when they choose between President Barack Obama
and Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney.

That’s the message that a handful of influential Pennsylvania
Democrats delivered during a news conference in York Thursday, just hours before Romney was set to deliver his
acceptance speech to GOP loyalists gathered at the Republican National
Convention in Tampa, Fla.

If Americans choose Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts,
over Obama, it will result in “the same top-down, rather than bottom-up
solutions that have put us in a terrible [economic] position,” said George
Hartwick, a Dauphin County commissioner, who’s also a delegate to next week’s
Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, N.C.

This November’s election will expose the “critical differences”
between the two parties, Hartwick said.

Standing in the city’s historic and bustling Continental Square,
Hartwick, along with York Mayor Kim Bracey and Harrisburg City Controller Dan
Miller (both of whom are also delegates) predicted victory for Obama – even as
national polls show the race between the two candidates steadily tightening.

York County Democratic Chairman Bob Kefauver, who is not serving
as a delegate, but will be attending the Charlotte gathering as a
self-professed “political junkie” was also on-hand. The county chief said he’s
already busy laying the groundwork for the fall campaign.

Miller, meanwhile, ticked off a list of Obama administration
accomplishments that he said included the auto industry bailout and approval of
the national healthcare reform law.

“We’ve seen so much change in the last four years,” said Miller,
who was a delegate to the 2008 Democratic National Convention in Denver, Colo.
Miller added that he couldn’t “see how the country could move forward”
economically without approval of the healthcare law.

During their weeklong gathering Tampa, Republicans have pummeled
the Democratic administration for what they say is its failure to get the
economy moving again.

In his acceptance speech Wednesday, GOP vice-presidential nominee
Paul Ryan of Wisconsin chastised the Obama White House for “[running] out of
ideas,” and claimed that “their moment came and went.”

“Fear and division is all they’ve got left,” Ryan said to
applause from GOP delegates.

On Thursday, the Democratic delegates rejected that argument,
claiming that next week’s gathering in a critical battleground state will
provide Obama with a national stage from which to frame his argument for
re-election.

“The Obama administration led our country through its darkest
hour,” said Bracey who, like Hartwick, is making her first appearance as a
delegate. “The economy is showing signs of growth and improvement.”